Wow, the bloggers over at The Broke and the Bookish have really been on a roll lately, haven’t they?! As soon as I saw this week’s prompt, I knew I had to join in.

BOOK-LOVING FICTIONAL CHARACTERS MEAN SO MUCH TO ME. I looooove reading about other people discovering the myriad ways in which stories can help you, change you, influence you, and allow you to travel to strange new places without ever leaving the comfort of your home. And I’m sure many (hopefully all?) of you would agree with me!

Enjoy!

1. Matilda WormwoodMatilda by Roald Dahl

“So Matilda’s strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone.”

Matilda comes first because she is THE ULTIMATE BOOKWORM. I see a lot of similarities between the two of us, and I love her enthusiasm for stories, and her realization that books are incredibly comforting.

2. VV For Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd

“Everybody is special. Everybody. Everybody is a hero, a lover, a fool, a villain. Everybody. Everybody has their story to tell.”

V owns so many books that he ran out of shelf space and now has piles and stacks on the floor! I AM V AND V IS ME.

3. Tyrion LannisterA Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin

“A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge.”

There are plenty of things I dislike about Tyrion – especially his treatment of Shae – but I do
appreciate his love of reading!

4. Bastian Balthazar BuxThe Neverending Story by Michael Ende

“Every real story is a neverending story.”

If you love Cornelia Funke’s Inkworld series, you HAVE to read this book! Funke quotes it often, and her books are basically based on this one. Bastian is a little boy who loves to read, and one day he reads himself into a story! UGH THIS BOOK IS SO BEAUTIFUL.

5. MoThe Inkworld series by Cornelia Funke

“‘If you take a book with you on a journey,’ Mo had said when he put the first one in her box, ‘an odd thing happens: The book begins collecting your memories. And forever after you have only to open that book to be back where you first read it. It will all come into your mind with the very first words: The sights you saw in that place, what it smelled like, the ice cream you ate while you were reading it… yes, books are like flypaper – memories cling to the printed page better than anything else.'”

I HAVE TO INCLUDE THIS ONE TOO, OF COURSE. Meggie’s father, Mo, can read characters out of books and people into books… DFJKHGSDFJKHFSDJGDF THAT IS SO COOL. And also mildly terrifying. (Can you imagine being read into A Song of Ice and Fire?!)

6. Ananka FishbeinThe Kiki Strike series by Kirsten Miller

“I had spent the first twelve years of my life in a large, dilapidated apartment near New York University, which my mother and father had filled with books on every imaginable subject. Stacks of books lined every room, some seeming to hold up the walls and others balanced so precariously that they threatened to topple and bury us all in an avalanche of accumulated wisdom.”

These books are about “delinquent Girl Scouts” who kick butt and fight crime in New York
City. This group was assembled by the leader, Kiki Strike, who chose each girl based on their
budding criminal talent – except for Ananka. Kiki chose Ananka for her library, her vast source of information about anything and everything NYC-related. KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, PEOPLES.

7. FrankieThe Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

“Mr. Wodehouse is a prose stylist of such startling talent that Frankie nearly skipped around with glee when she first read some of his phrases… Wodehouse’s jubilant wordplay bore itself into her synapses like a worm into a fresh ear of corn.”

Frankie is a brilliant young woman, and so much of her life revolves around books: She finds her favorite bizarre ideas in them, and even goes in search of an extra-special book.

8. Tiffany Aching The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett

“‘Onomatopoeic,’ she’d discovered in the dictionary, meant words that sounded like the noise of the thing they were describing, like cuckoo. But she thought there should be a word meaning a word that sounds like the noise a thing would make if that thing made a noise even though, actually, it doesn’t, but would if it did.
Glint, for example. If light made a noise as it reflected off a distant window, it’d go glint!”

I LOVE TIFFANY. She may have read the entire dictionary, but that doesn’t mean she knows how to pronounce all those words! It’s good to know that I’m not the only bookworm who has issues with practical things like mispronunciation…

9. RipredThe Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins

“‘Oh, I know a great many things about the Overland that our friends here do not. I have spent much time there among your books and papers,’ said Ripred.
‘You can read?’ asked Gregor.
‘Most rats read. Our frustration is, we cannot hold a pen to write.'”

THIS QUOTE MAKES ME CRACK UP EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Also, I just really like the idea of Ripred being a liaison between the Underland and Overland cultures? He understands both of them so well, and uses this knowledge to stop arguments and make the two groups cooperate.

10. Bilbo BagginsThe Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien

“The world is not in your books and maps. It’s out there!”

UGH I HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS ABOUT BILBO AND HIS BOOKS. I feel like after returning from the Lonely Mountain, he basically lived for stories and memories.

-~-

Who are your favorite bookish characters? How did they develop a love of reading? (Did a friend or family member encourage them?) And most importantly… what is their favorite book of all time?!

4 Responses to Top Ten Bookish Characters

I LOVE THAT BILBO LVOES BOOKS. I love that gif out there where he’s like “I miss my home and my books” because omg, that is me. I am Bilbo. If I even go out for a day I miss my books. *burrows into hobbit hole and resides there for eternity*